CHART OF THE DAY: Companies Are Using Their Cash Much More For Dividends And Buybacks Than They Used Tohttp://www.businessinsider.com/chart-corporate-cash-use-since-1998-2013-4/comments
en-usWed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 -0500Sun, 02 Aug 2015 19:26:56 -0400Sam Rohttp://www.businessinsider.com/c/5162ef40eab8ea3b46000020chumbucketMon, 08 Apr 2013 12:24:32 -0400http://www.businessinsider.com/c/5162ef40eab8ea3b46000020
With all the cheap money the Fed has funneled to Corporate America it's a sad commentary that returning cash to investors is the highest and best use of capital. Has corporate America now become a bunch of mutual funds?http://www.businessinsider.com/c/5162ca1aecad04c21e000007cw7Mon, 08 Apr 2013 09:46:02 -0400http://www.businessinsider.com/c/5162ca1aecad04c21e000007
More wealth extraction for the wealthy while worker wages continue their multi-decade decline and 15% of the country lives below the poverty line. Nice to see trickle down economics working so well...http://www.businessinsider.com/c/5162c2baecad047811000004theanphibianMon, 08 Apr 2013 09:14:34 -0400http://www.businessinsider.com/c/5162c2baecad047811000004
I hate corporate buybacks. This chart proves everything bad that has been said about it.
These companies should have been buying back their shares in 2008-2009 in droves. They didn't, and instead had blow their cash buying back shares at bubble-level prices in 2007. Thanks management.
This just shows that the market can't outsmart the market. Just distribute the cash with dividends, so that when they're blown in a suboptimal investment, at least it will be the fault of the stockholders themselves. It takes a high school level of understanding of the market to see the effect of buybacks in the above chart. It's a suck on value. A transfer of wealth from buy-and-holders to traders. A big middle finger to long term investors.